Combe Sydenham

Combe Sydenham is a manor house, dating from the late 15th to early 16th century. A porch was added to the south front in 1580, the west front was later refenestrated, and at least two stair turrets were added around 1580 and circa 1630-40. Another stair was inserted into an angle turret around 1800, while the south front was refenestrated and buildings to the north and east were demolished. A 19th-century west wing and possibly a south wing were reroofed. The house is constructed of rubble with roughcast, a moulded plinth, and a Ham stone ashlar porch. It has a slate roof, hipped to the left.

The original plan featured an open hall on the south front, now ceiled, with a screen passage opening from the porch. A buttery is located to the right, and a stair turret is positioned behind the fireplace to the left of the screen passage. The west wing contains a first-floor hall, and a later stair was inserted into a second stair turret set in an angle.

The south front has two storeys and 4:1:1 bays. A full-height gabled porch dates from around 1800 and features leaded wooden casements; four-light windows are in the outer bays, with three-light windows elsewhere. A four-light ovolo moulded mullioned and transomed window is set into the porch, displaying a coat of arms in a decorative frame, inscribed and dated 1580. The design incorporates unfluted Ionic pilasters on tall plinths, a billetted frieze, a semi-circular arched opening with busts set in roundels, an ornamented cross vault, and complex mouldings with stops to a similar arched inner doorway. Heraldic beasts decorate the spandrels, and there is a studded plank door, possibly from the 17th century. The west front, half-hipped to the left, has roughcast and quoins, with a large external stepped stack between the first and second bays right. It has 3:4:1 bays, with windows under square hood moulds. The first floor features three sixteen-light ovolo moulded mullioned and transomed windows to the left, a twelve-pane sash window in the centre, and mullioned and transomed windows to the left. A cinquefoil-headed lancet on the right displays a decorative design said to represent an earlier formal garden layout. Two hollow chamfered mullioned and transomed windows with cinquefoil heads are on the right, with an arched entrance featuring a plank door; a Gothic tracery fanlight is above, and two similar windows are on the right, the inner one blocked below a cusped head.

A three-story cross-gabled stair turret projects from the rear elevation, with twelve-pane sash windows facing south. A two-story stair turret is located to the left, and is presumed to have had a now-demolished upper storey.

The interior includes remains of late 16th and early 17th century plasterwork friezes, early 19th century plasterwork to the staircase with a stick stair and cut strips, and a fine stone newel stair in the turret behind the hall fireplace. The fireplace lintel has a depressed Tudor arched head with moulded jambs, and similar arched openings are found in the buttery and the stair turret set in an angle. The upper storey of the south wing was not viewed, and the hall roof is thought to have been renewed in the 19th century. The west wing was gutted prior to restoration in January 1984. A notable historical detail is that the daughter of Sir George Sydenham, who expanded the house, married Sir Francis Drake.